updated 09:55 pm EDT, Thu July 22, 2004

Apple signs 1-to-1 deal

Apple has signed yet another with the Vestavia Hills Board of Education in Alabama, the first of its kind in the state. According to The Birmingham News, Sixth graders and faculty members at Cahaba Heights Community School will will receive 12- and 14-inch iBooks (respectively) as "part of a pilot program designed to improve learning among students of an increasingly digital generation. Through an agreement with Apple Inc., the system will pay about $127,000 over the next three years to lease 75 iBook laptops in a program called Apple 1 to 1 Learning. The money also will cover related software and training." The pilot program is designed for 35 students at the school, but the director hopes to expand the program in January 2005 to all of the system's sixth-graders and sixth-grade faculty, which will involve an additional 360 students and cost about $515,000 over three years.